Dark Souls.

General. Bring all your awesome stories, screenshots, progression, news and anything else you can think of to the thread.

Don't know what Dark Souls is? You're missing out on one of the most rewarding games in the market today that not only tests your patience and will to keep going, but your skill as you take on the environment you're thrown in to by a giant crow. It's worth every cent spent, challenging you from beginning to end, and that even includes invasion from other players, the PvP aspect of the game. The game has countless ways to play, allowing you to pick any starter class as a base, and from there you're able to morph and mold your character as you wish with no restriction. Play it the way you want to, and I promise you the first couple of hours will be frustration central and it won't let up the whole playthrough, but that is what makes it feel so much better when you finally kill your first boss.

Sound interesting to you, and you don't have it yet? You're in luck! You go buy now, and we won't judge you! It's not very often I see this game on sale and encourage those of you willing to shell out the cash for it to give it a shot.

Single player mainly, although, you can add friends via Games for Windows Live, and they may aid you in your game in sections [after a boss, they'll get a small reward for helping and will disappear, able to be summoned another area].

I'd say an open world, adventure, multiplayer-integrated, RPG-ey with a buttload of arse-kicking moments combined with a death dealing difficulty of "nofuckingaround"-ery, which will make you go through tear-inflicting failures and lubricant/erection-emitting victories.

If its an open world with good graphics and gameplay like Skyrim, I'd definitely like to get it.

Where to begin...@Luffaren already hit the nail on the head pretty much.

It's a third person, entirely open world. If you so choose, you can kill a good number of bosses BEFORE you even kill the first one you're supposed to. It's not hack-and-slash like skyrim is, you cannot pause and eat 100 cabbages/cheese wheels and make imba potions/gear/weapons. If you accidentally kill a merchant/blacksmith they will stay dead til next playthrough. You will also die a lot. 100% of the time you die it will be your fault. Dying is guaranteed and even says it in the title, so if you can't handle frustration well or get mad if you die a lot then you should pass. Dark Souls doesn't hold your hand and tell you where to go, so there's no hints or compasses (well there technically is one, but it's a miracle that you need a high faith stat to use) usually you'll end up knowing if you shouldn't be somewhere. Every weapon has it's upgrades and different ascension paths, some weapons/armor/shields can only be upgraded with special reagents while others need items you can only get a few times per playthrough. If you wear heavy armor you will walk really slow and can't flip around and roll easy; if your weapon is large and bulky or small and quick but you don't have the stats for it, you can swing it but it will recoil off your target or do very little damage.

If you've heard about Dark Souls before and want to give it a go, Now is the time. $15 is a hella great price for it, it was still worth it at $30.

Here's a few youtube channels you should check. These people are well known in the Dark Souls community and their videos are great, funny and informative.

A gamepad is very very very VERY recommended. There is an existing keyboard fix but it feels more natural, and easier with a controller. If you have an xbox controller with a USB that you use for online gaming you can use that, or do like me and get a PS3 controller and a USB cable using an emulator. Either way works and Whoever plans to do this, I will offer my help.

There is also a couple other downloads that fix the resolution and allow for summoning friends faster and easier. We'll cross that bridge when it comes to it though.

EDIT: For those that decide to pick it up now or in the near future, a few tips:

It's always better to upgrade your weapons/gear than spend souls on another stat as weapons decide whether you get to live or not

Do not level vitality over 45, or any other stat over 40 as the bonuses diminish and it's not worth the point

If you decide to 2 hand (like a boss) it's always go hard or go home. No shields or turtles allowed.

Am a big fan of Demon's Souls though I beat that more than a few times and regularly PVP'd with a SL 121 Holy build.

Even though who they send you to when you invade is completely random there still was a PVP environment. Most of us would get on Shrine of Storms' first level and that's where a lot of PVP went on at SL 121.

Effectively, this breaks the Cheat Tables that skiddies use to hack, so there should be FAR less hacking (for now) on the steam platform for Dark Souls. I kinda want to celebrate with Darkwraith invasions aplenty, but i'm still wrapped up in FFXIV's cozy blanket.